True love! Millionaire Gives Up Vast Wealth to Live a Modest Life With His Humble Villager Wife (Photos)

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True love! Millionaire Gives Up Vast Wealth to Live a Modest Life With His Humble Villager Wife (Photos)

A Chinese multimillionaire has given up his wealthy, metropolitan lifestyle in order to live with his true love in her modest rural village, in a story that has touched hearts across the country.

Yao Nanshan, 60, made his considerable fortune abroad in Spain after running a restaurant chain business in Seville for 30 years, according to a report by People's Daily Online.

He married Liu Lijuan, who he met whilst he was stranded in the mountains on holiday, in December 2015 and wants to live a simple life with her where she comes from.

Yao gave up the seven homes he owns in his hometown of Qingtian, southeast China, and always had a yearning to detach himself from 'big city existence.'

In 2002 he was devastated by the tragic loss of his first wife to aggressive stomach cancer and felt as if he had lost the purpose of his life in her death, despite his significant riches.


During a hiking trip to a local mountain range in later 2013, Yao and a friend got lost and missed their last bus to take them back to Qingtian.

The only option was to knock on the doors of local villagers' houses and grovel for a bed for the night - and fortuitously stumbled upon the home of Liu.

Yao has told of how he was impressed by Liu's 'kindness' and 'happiness', even in spite of the cruel and difficult upbringing she had faced earlier in life which had left her in serious poverty.

The pair, who were attracted to each other, kept in touch once Yao returned to Spain to work and eventually he returned to see Liu and profess his love to her.

Yao told reporters how 'at first she did not believe [him]' and that she thought he was 'playing with him', particularly given the significant financial gulf between them.